Our productivity folders are filled with apps we once loved: Pretty utilities with minimal interfaces and slick navigation that were quickly supplanted by the next great to-do app. Tasky+ comes awfully close to being that next great option. Built around a concept that's as smart as it is simple, the to-do and reminders app combines intuitive gestures with brisk date recognition that strips your life down to the moments that matter.

Every new to-do app that hits the App Store claims to be innovative. Most manage to put their own spin on things with a fresh interface or a clever concept, but for the most part they're all pretty much interchangeable, no matter how much we may favor one over the other. Tick breaks the mold. There are no new methods here – it's still just a place to keep your many lists – but Taphive has designed a unique interface built for speed and organization that puts the app in a class by itself.

All day long, our phones tell us what to do. Even before we turn them on each morning, a constant stream of badges, banners, and alerts keeps us apprised of our appointments and deadlines, pestering us with so much information that it becomes all too easy to tune it out. Begin attempts to cut through the clutter with a unique take on the to-do list. Instead of collecting tasks and prompting you when a due date is near, Begin boils your life down into 48-hour chunks. By focusing only on what you're doing today and tomorrow, it might actually help you accomplish something.

To make a great task manager, three criteria need to be met: Simple list creation, easy gestures, and effortless syncing. With a clean, flat design and versatile text options, Listacular for Dropbox hits every note and then some. Listacular sports a minimal interface subtly influenced by a sheet of loose-leaf paper, but what it lacks in color and pizzazz, it makes up for in intuitiveness.

With an iPhone in my pocket, a trip to the grocery store isn't nearly as unpleasant as it used to be. Thanks to a slew of advanced features that have made my lists smarter and more powerful, I've learned how to save money at checkout and dramatically cut down on the return trips I used to make after forgetting to pick something up. Shopster wants to make the experience even easier. By eschewing common features like iCloud syncing, virtual aisles, and barcode scanning, Shopster focuses on what's most important: What you need to buy and where you need to buy it.

Droplist really wants to be the go-to to-do app on your iPhone. Each time it’s launched, an inspirational quote beckons you inside, encouraging you to not only make lists, but actually accomplish some of the things you’ve written. It’s so friendly and cheerful, you might feel guilty closing it. But even without the deep thoughts, I wouldn’t be scrambling to delete Droplist from my iPhone.

I’ve been an iOS enthusiast for a few years now, but I still find it astonishing how quickly my iPhone became a central figure in my day-to-day routine. I rarely relied on my old Motorola Razr to plot my creative writing projects, or track how many miles I’d trekked on my coffee shop excursions -- but that’s probably what I find so interesting about the iPhone and well-intentioned apps like Trakr: they allow and even urge me to keep track of, and improve upon, my personal progress. And it's obvious that this super-simple data management app has its heart in the right place.

Somewhere deep in a Cupertino laboratory, a team of developers is no doubt hard at work at a killer to-do app. Reminders is a good start – and certainly a welcome improvement over the iCal-Mail-Notes solution – but it just doesn't have the simplicity and elegance we've come to expect from Apple's own offerings. Whatever they're working on, they might want to put it on hold and download a copy of Clear, the classiest list-making app we've ever used.

With so many apps now available in the App Store, it’s not often that one comes along that makes everyone swoon over it. Let’s face it: We’re jaded by having so many cool apps on the iOS platform, so we stand up and take notice when one gets so much attention. This week, it’s Realmac Software’s Clear which has everyone talking.

We lead such hectic lives that it’s all too easy to forget an important job until it’s too late. Whether it’s picking up the kids’ new school uniforms, booking the dog into kennels or checking your car insurance, almost every job has a due date and a priority. Each of these little tasks contributes to a much bigger chore: keeping them all in order.